From the Ball-Room to HellBy: Thomas A. Faulkner

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Formerly Proprietor of the Los Angeles Dancing Academy and ex President
of Dancing Masters' Association of the Pacific Coast.

THE HENRY PUBLISHING CO.

57 Washington St., Room 16.

CHICAGO.

Copyright 1892

BY

R. F. HENRY.

PREFACE.

You will, my dear reader, find many very plain things between the two
covers of this little book; things which will, perhaps, shock your
modesty and probably disgust you altogether.

But if you find merely the reading of the facts disgusting, think how
much more disgusting is the reality, and how essential that some one
should portray the evil to the public in a manner impressive and not to
be misunderstood.

I have numerous reasons for undertaking this work, chief among them,
however, being because I have for many months, felt it to be a duty to
my God, and to my fellow man. Nay, I may put it in a yet more concise
form; and simply say, because of a sense of duty to my God, for I
believe the two to be inseparable. As the green calyx of the rosebud
holds within its embrace everything required to make up the perfect
rose in all its beauty of form, texture, tint and perfume, so my duty to
my God embraces my whole duty to my fellow man in all its beauty of
kindness, love, and any help or warning I may be able to give, and if
that duty shall lead me to speak out boldly and plainly a warning
against the evil of a popular amusement, I will boldly and plainly
speak, and leave the result with Him whose I am and whom I serve.

Many will, doubtless, object to the book on account of the plainness of
the language used; but, my friends, I have endeavored to tell the truth,
and to do this on such a subject, does not admit of the use of delicate
language. A mild hint at such a fact, clothed in flowery language, would
only serve to give a vague impression, and would fall far short of the
mission I wish this little book to accomplish, viz.: the opening of the
eyes of the people, particularly parents, who are blind to the awful
dangers there are for young girls in the dancing academy and ball room,
and of leading some, if possible, to forsake (as I have done) the old
unsatisfactory life of selfish pleasure and sinful indulgence and enter
upon the purer, nobler and far happier life, which I have found in the
service of the Lord.

I do not undertake to write upon a subject of which I am ignorant. There
are, perhaps, few people living who have had more practical experience
or better opportunities of finding out the evil influences of dancing
than myself. I began to dance at the age of twelve and have spent most
of my life since that time, until within a few months, in the dancing
parlors and academies. For the last six years I have been a teacher of
dancing and for several years held the championship of the Pacific Coast
in fancy and round dancing. I am also the author of many of the round
dances which are the popular fads of the day.

I merely tell you these things to prove to you that I know whereof I
speak, and not because I am proud of them. On the contrary, it is the
greatest sorrow of my life that I have been so long and in such an
influential way connected with an evil which I know to have been the
ruin, both of soul and body, to many a bright young life. And if, in the
hands of God, I can be the means of leading one fiftieth as many souls
to Christ as I have seen led to a life of vice and crime through the
influence of dancing academies with which I have been connected, I shall
be more proud than I have ever been of any previous achievements. And if
this little book shall, in any degree, help in the accomplishment of
this purpose, I shall feel that I am more than repaid for my trouble in
its writing, and shall willingly and gladly endure all the harsh
criticism and condemnation I know its writing will bring upon me.